Nope (2022)
A new terror from the mind of Academy Award winner Jordan Peele.
I had in mind another movie for tonight I thought I had already done. According to the name tags and my spreadsheet I use to keep track of them, the answer to that age old reoccurrence is always the same - no idiot, you have not actually done that one. It’s hard keeping track of what I’ve watched and what I’ve watched for here sometimes, and I can only imagine the absolute chaos it’s gonna cause when my memory gets even worse. Anyways, we got horses, we got horror mystery, and we got a what I think is the third big horror movie directed by Jordan Peele (although to be fair my memory doesn’t really recall if its the second, third, or fourth, so we’ll just go with IMDB’s third full-length directing credit). Secure your animal actors and get ready for what could be the best name semi-spooky movie you’ll ever hear - tonight we watch Nope.
A family is in the horse training business, providing some well trained animal actors for Hollywood cinema. They come from a long line of such, but things in our movie get off to a rocky start when some weird stuff happens and random things rain out of the sky and kill our lead’s dad. “Airplane dumping stuff” they said - not that there’s a whole lot to believe about it, but what else could it be? Years later the son is still trying to keep things going, but he’s slowly having to sell off horse after horse to keep the place running - and his social skills aren’t exactly helping the situation as he’s clearly way better at communicating with animals then people. When his sister is back up to help out for a bit, things get really weird again and the brother sees something out there in the skies moving real fast. What else can it be but a UFO? I mean, by it’s very nature it’s a flying object and unidentified, so alien or not the label fits - but it does provide an opportunity for the siblings to potentially make a little money to help save the ranch.
Actors do wonderful here. Even some of the side characters get some pretty emphatic acting - although I will give some leeway towards if people consider it good or not because it can be a bit over-the-top. It never seems unintended here - none of it feels phoned in or like they didn’t have direction, just perhaps a bit subdued or energetic depending on the character. Our lead, for example, really gives off the impression he would rather be around the horses any day then any of the humans he’s interacting with. His sister, on the other hand, bleeds out so much energy he might as well look like a statue in comparison. Sure, not all the side characters actors get a ton to do - some of the kids actors are there for about three poses, and bunch of the background folks might not even get lines - but you get a good spread of four or five different folks to provide plenty of varied levels throughout.
The characters themselves suit the movie without going too overboard. You may find yourself rooting for the siblings by the end, or worrying for them even. What I don’t know if I would really say is if there’s much as far as progression to them. We do have what I feel is a little bit of arcs for them, but you’ll feel more change in the sister by the end as the brother feels more like he just understands the situation better more than he actually changes as a person from the start. Side characters don’t really get anything in development turns - although at least the amusement owner does get plenty of background that helps flesh out some of the stories underlaying point and the thread that ties everything together.
Siblings at work.
Costumes here are wildly normal, but it would be weird if they weren’t. Normal, modern setting? Normal modern clothes. Characters do still get to look specific enough on screen that you’ll never mistake one for the other, but the wildest outfit you’ll get is a reporter-type wearing a mirror-ball motorcycle helmet, and the more common reach of cowboy-themed or prank alien costume from the attraction owner and his kids. Effects are pretty good however, and things will (normally) look really good. Admittedly, my connection tonight was having a bit of a struggle with the movie, so overall quality was down from when I previously watched this back when (which unfortunately probably will come through in the screenshots I grabbed), but that’s more a combination of Spectrum and Netflix trying to Predator handshake my movie night into problems. Of all the effects in here, I would say the worst looking one would probably be the chimp that shows up in the movie - and even then a lot of the time that will still look really good, especially when your viewing platform isn’t compressing it into the dumpster.
I feel like there is probably a lot more commentary here then I’m rated for. As is usually common knowledge by now, I don’t generally watch movies to think so much as escape into entertainment. This movie does the entertaining quite well - with plenty of things from thrills and tension to laughs (intentional or not) and Akira motorcycle slides. At the very core of it in easy to notice fashion is the whole thing with animals - how they should be respected, how they’ve played such impressive roles in cinema over time, and just how dangerous they can be when not expected as we forget that deep down they are still wild at heart. Past that, I think there’s also some stuff to talk about on the movie industry, or perhaps entertainment industry as a whole. There’s also - at least I feel like there is - some stuff on trauma there that ties in with the animal side of things. Again, I’m not the one here to weigh in on most of this stuff - I mean, being a farm kid I can talk to the fact that just because an animal might be your friend doesn’t mean it’s totally harmless in the right situations and how you should really respect that, but pretty much all the rest of it is past my pay grade of psychology or experience.
Audio here does a good job. Music plays plenty of spots, and it can be on point sometimes and other times just fitting background music. The audio design and little sounds is where things really get to shine, especially towards the end when things get a tad more horrific. Lines are delivered well, and the balance to go along with them is also quite well done. There’s certainly some comedy in this movie, and I choose to believe that at least some of it is incredibly intentional (such as the camera versus the mantis moment), but how much it really resonates will probably change from person to person and although I appreciate the levity it can bring it’s not really overdone too much. That said, my mind stored the movie under “horror/dark comedy” so my brains way of finding jokes where they shouldn’t necessarily be might color that to a degree as well. I should also put out that the movie isn’t really super graphic in details, even if the implied violence is certainly there and at one point it may or may not have rained blood.
Something in this picture isn’t like the others.
Nope was an interesting movie, and it’s certainly better suited for a non-compressed bad internet night. There’s a lot of scenes that are dark in lighting (such as outdoor nighttime scenes), and these things highly benefit from being able to see differences in the grading. There’s also a lot of fine details that a person can miss out on thanks to the compression, as it’s hard enough playing Where’s Waldo when the picture isn’t run through a pixel mosaic first. Movie wise it’s put together great, has plenty to think about and doesn’t feel like itt’s dragging along at any real moments, even if it’s in a lull section. The guy knows how to make a good movie and play with expectations to add little twists that seem obvious but you just might not really set into until after it becomes obvious. The acting is done well, and it does enough different that it doesn’t just feel like some cookie cutter attempt at fitting into a genre. I also love the amount of times the movie plays around with a character just going “Nope” and bailing. The move may be named Nope, but it get’s a solid yes from me.